As of today, we officially have a newborn in our home! Based on the doctor’s prediction, Becca’s due date was February 22, so now Becca’s adjusted age is one day old. Becca is enjoying her life as a newborn, including being carried by Daddy in the mobi and having nap time with Daddy.
Now that Becca is 12 weeks old, she is becoming a very accomplished young lady. My university piano teacher made Becca a sweater, hat, booties, and little animal (I had no idea that Dr. Wilson could do this!). We decided that Becca should wear Dr. Wilson’s gifts while she had her first piano lesson. Maybe someday Dr. Wilson herself can give Becca a piano lesson!
Becca is enjoying being home with her daddy and mommy, and we’re both delighted to have her home with us. The second day Becca was home, we had a significant amount of snow for this area of Texas. Though Josh and I were unable to go out in the snow together, we both enjoyed walking around our apartment and stomping around in the snow a bit. Maybe next year, Becca will be able to go out with us and play in the snow.
It appears that Becca’s colitis is clearing up. She has a follow-up appointment with Dr. Raine next week to make sure the colitis is officially clearing up.
Josh and I enjoyed our Valentine’s Day. I am so blessed to be married to the world’s most wonderful man.
Here’s a few pictures of some of the week’s activities for Becca. Thank you for your prayers for us. We are praising God for His continual working in Becca’s life and are so grateful for His protection on her life.
Becca’s first visit with Dr. Wilfred Raine, her pediatrician, was originally scheduled for this Thursday. But because of some bloody stools Becca has had, the office moved her appointment up to this afternoon.
After looking closely at a couple diapers — one we brought in from an earlier changing, and one that Becca prepared for us in the waiting room — Dr. Raine determined it wasn’t an anal fissure producing most of the blood (though an examination revealed that she does indeed have one); there was too much blood, and it was too dark for that. Instead, he thinks it’s colitis, inflammation of the large intestine. He’s pretty certain that it’s being caused by an allergy to the cow-milk proteins in the formula that the NICU gave us to supplement Becca’s feedings. So he gave us lots of (samples of) a hypoallergenic formula. He expects the problem to clear up in about a week. Just in time for Becca’s next doctor’s visit!
Dr. Raine was highly recommended to us, and we really like him. (Today was the first day we’d met him, as well.) He spent a lot of time with us, and he’s committed to getting Becca off the formula and the monitor as soon as her progress justifies. He didn’t make a secret of his dislike for both the monitor and baby formula — but they’re necessary evils for now.
On an unrelated note, here’s a couple photos we took playing at my computer on Sunday.
Hopefully when Amy gets a chance, she’ll post some other photos — including Becca’s first piano lesson.
After 76 days in the NICU, our little Becca is finally home! Our rooming in experience went well and they released Becca yesterday afternoon to come home with us. The pictures show our hospital room, which was right next to the one I spent 11 days in before Becca came, and Abbie, Becca’s nurse for the day. One of the last things Becca did before leaving the hospital was to christen Abbie.
Becca loves her swing and is getting used to her new bed. It’s so wonderful to have her at home with us. We’re all adjusting to our new schedules. Becca requires 3 medications plus vitamins, and she eats every 3 hours. Becca has to wear a heart and breathing monitor 24/7, so she always has a cord with her. So far we’ve only had false alarms go off. We’re praying that she will do well and be taken off the monitor soon.
We’re praising God for bringing Becca home. He has answered so many prayers concerning her life. Thank you to all of you who have been praying for our little Becca.
We got the call this morning, and tonight is the night. Sometime late this afternoon or early evening, we’ll go in to the hospital and spend the night taking care of our daughter in a private room (probably in postpartum). Before that happens, we will . . .
If all goes well, we can bring Becca home tomorrow. If Becca decides she’s not quite ready (by doing really poorly at her feedings or having apnea events, I suppose), then she’d get some more time at the NICU and we’d try again later.
Thanks everyone for your prayers. We thank the Lord for bringing Becca to this point, and we’re excited about the major life changes that start this afternoon!
It’s hard to believe that our Becca is now 70 days old – she’s made such progress since her birth on Thanksgiving Day. Becca’s current weight is 6lbs and 4.5 oz. She’s doing well with her bottle-feedings and and might be home within the next week. As of Wednesday, Becca became the oldest baby in the NICU and now holds the title “Princess of the NICU.” We’re looking forward to having Becca home this month. Thank you for all your prayers!
On a Saturday in late December, I happened to be out and about while NPR’s Car Talk with Click and Clack was on, and I was intrigued by the weekly puzzler, which involved re-arranging matchsticks to get a particular sum. So when I got home, I laid out the problem for Amy, and she got it right away. I submitted her answer and then forgot about it. I haven’t listened to Car Talk since.
So today, one of my former students emails to ask if “Amy Jensen of Arlington Texas” is my wife. Because apparently her (correct) answer won the puzzler! (I’m guessing that it was a re-run that he heard, since the winner should have been announced on the first episode in January.) Did anyone else hear this? Is it in fact true?
Of course, my wife is amazing for reasons mostly unrelated to her ability to solve puzzles. She works so hard; she’s a great cook; she helps keep me organized and motivated; she’s a remarkable encourager; she’s my best friend. And she’s a really good mom!
Update 2/2/2010: We have the audio clip! . . .
[audio:car-talk-clip.mp3|titles=Car Talk Names Amy Winner|artists=Click and Clack]
Becca now weighs 6lbs, has graduated from her plastic bin to a little crib, and is occasionally put in a swing by the night nurses. We’re still waiting for Becca to get the hang of bottle feeding. The NICU staff has tried several methods (different bottle nipples) to help Becca have successful bottle-feeds. Currently they’re adding thickener to Becca’s milk in hopes that it will keep her from choking when she bottle feeds. The nurses keep telling us that one of these days everything is going to click for Becca and she’ll be home in a jiffy. Thanks for your continual prayers.
18 inches long and 5 lb. 9 oz.!
Many people assume that 5 lbs. is the magic number for leaving the NICU, but this is not the case. Technically, Becca only had to weigh 4lbs to come home. After she hit the 4lbs mark, the only thing that keeps her in the NICU is her oxygen support and tube feedings. Becca came off her nasal canual on Friday and has been doing an excellent job breathing without any additional support since then. Currently, the only thing that is keeping her in the NICU is her feeding tube. In order to come home Becca must take all her feedings through the bottle. Though she had a great start, right now Becca isn’t doing too well with her bottle feedings and we’re expecting that she’ll being the NICU until sometime in February.
We continue to be pleased with Becca’s progress and good health and are thanking the Lord for working on her behalf. Thank you for your continual prayers.
This past weekend, Josh and I enjoyed our 2nd annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day getaway. We traveled to Dallas and stayed at the Magnolia Hotel. The Magnolia Hotel is the former Mobile building (i.e., Exxon Mobile), and it was built in 1910. At the time it was the tallest skyscraper in the city and was the first to have air conditioning. We stayed in a corner room on the 24th floor – the “historic” floor – and enjoyed our view of the city. Once again, our vacation was sponsored by credit card points. (Rent and tuition really help the points add up during the year!)
At the Magnolia, we enjoyed soda during their “happy hour” and a milk, cookies, and coffee snack at the late evening cookie bar. For dinner, we walked to a little Italian restaurant. The hot breakfast in the morning was great.
Our little vacation was relaxing for us both, especially after the events of the past 10 weeks. Josh started back to school on Tuesday and has an exciting semester ahead of him. Our next big event will be Becca coming home!
A picture from today…notice anything missing?
This week I was surprised with a “shower in a box.” My sister-in-law, along with other friends and family members, organized a special shower for us all the way from SC. Josh informed me that he had a surprise for me this week. So after coming home from school and taking my nap, I was invited by my husband into our living room to see my “surprise.” I overwhelmed to see our living room full of gifts from friends and family. (See video below!)
After eating our angel food cake with strawberries, Josh and I enjoyed opening our gifts. 
As of this evening, we’re only half way through opening everything. I’ll post more pictures once we finish opening all the gifts.
The shower means so much to me. With everything going on with the unexpected early arrival of Becca, I keep thinking how I’m missing out from all the “events” surrounding one’s last three months of pregnancy (some might say that’s nice — but I was looking forward to experiencing pregnancy all the way through). It means so much to me to actually open up presents, instead of buying everything with gift cards. I know it was a lot of extra work for Ashleigh to pack and ship all the gifts — and we appreciate all that went into planning and preparing our shower. Thank you to all who helped making our shower so special!
This photo is from a couple hours ago. Holding Becca is Jennifer, her day nurse today.
Becca’s weight today is a whopping 2230 grams — that’s 4 lb 14.6 oz! She’s not getting the suck-swallow-breath thing too well, but she’s still negative 5 weeks old, so we’ll give her a break.
Amy’s working on another post to follow this one shortly.
From last evening . . .
Yeah, no posts since Becca’s last birthday. Sorry. As you may know, this is Amy’s second week back teaching, so she’s crazy busy (and tired!). Last Thursday and Friday I was at a linguistics conference in Baltimore, where it was almost as cold as it was here in Texas last week. This week I’m gearing up for my semester, which starts next Tuesday.
Becca’s weight yesterday was 2120 grams, about 4 lb 10.8 oz. She’s being fed every 3 hours, which comes out to 8 times a day. As of today, they’re giving her 42 ml per feeding. Every day for three of the eight feedings, they give her a bottle. After 20-25 min of bottle feeding, they pour the rest down her tube so as not to wear her out too much.
Sometimes she does better with the bottle than other times. Yesterday afternoon she took almost the whole bottle (all but 5 ml). Last evening, she didn’t want to wake up, and she only took about 15. This afternoon, she was awake, but she choked a few times and maybe got discouraged. She took about 25. So the big developmental prayer request right now is that she coordinates her suck-swallow-breathe routine better — on a consistent basis. Once she does, they’ll move her to bottle every other feeding.
To reward you for reading all this, here’s another photo I like from last evening:
T
oday is Becca’s 6-week birthday! She started out this week (Sunday) by coming out of her incubator and is now wearing clothes and working on learning to take her feedings from a bottle. Once she learns to take all her feedings through a bottle, she will be released to come home! So far, Becca takes one bottle during the day-shift and one during the night-shift. The occupational therapist works with her bottle-feeding during the day, and Josh has been able to go in during this time and learn all that goes into bottle-feeding a preemie!
Becca’s current weight is 4 lbs. and 4 oz. We’re very pleased with her progress. Thank you for your continual prayers for our little girl!
Hint: it’s one of the pretty girls in the photo. . . . Okay, here’s another photo to help you figure it out:
This evening we called the night nurse to find out her daily weight, and Becca’s reached 1800 grams! Tonight they may see how she does outside the incubator in a crib — with just clothes (!) and blankets. She may not be ready yet to hold her body heat without help, but it’s a positive step forward for her nurse to try the crib. Probably next week they’ll try her on a bottle, too. At her gestational age, she may not have the coordination to suck, breathe, and swallow all at the same time, but again, it’s great that they’re ready to try. (I have trouble myself with breathing and swallowing at the same time.)
In the photo above, you can see Becca getting a bath last night. It was the second bath Amy and I have given her (with supervision, of course).
Tonight we called the nurse instead of going in to the hospital since it was date night. After dinner out, we played 3 rounds of Memory (another gift from Aunt Cindy). Guess who won two out of three rounds?
We wrapped up the evening by reviewing last year’s goals and setting new ones for 2010. Now it’s bed time.
Today is Becca’s 5-week birthday! She currently weighs 3 lbs 11 oz and is 15.5 inches long. We’re looking forward to when she weighs 4 lbs – that’s when bottle-feeding can begin and bottle-feeding is a big step toward coming home.
We’ve enjoyed being able to participate in caring for Becca more. This week we’ve been learning how to bathe her. Each nurse has her own technique, so we’re learning lots of ways to give preemies baths. Last night we did most of the bathing on our own (with supervision) – Josh washed her hair. 
Today we took a spoon into the NICU to “retake” the picture my mom took on Nov. 27th. As you can see, Bec
ca is making progress to someday being able to use a spoon on her own. It’s amazing to look back at pictures and see how much she’s grown since Thanksgiving.
We’re having a quiet New Year’s Eve – Josh is working on finishing up his dissertation proposal, and I’m trying to get some things in order before I start back teaching on Monday. I’m breaking my maternity leave in half, so when Becca comes home from the NICU I can go back on leave and be home during her first few weeks home. Thank you for your prayers for Becca. We are praising God for her good progress and health.
We had a delightful white Christmas. I haven’t had a white Christmas in several years and found it funny that we were in Texas, having a white Christmas. We started out our day by visiting Becca and singing Christmas carols to her. Becca is still in the isolation pod and will continue to be there until she comes 
home. We’re praising God that the MRSA is just colonized in her nose and that she is infection free.
Late morning and early afternoon, we enjoyed homemade cinnamon rolls and opening presents by the 
Christmas tree. We’ve been saving gifts sent to us or Becca to open on Christmas day. Our Christmas tree was lent to us by Aunt Rita (a lady in our church), many of our lights were given to us by David and Caroline, and most of the decorations were lent to us by Sandi (another lady in our church). It was so nice to have a Christmas tree in our little apartment.
In the afternoon, we went to see Becca and I was able to hold her. She was quite alert and seemed to enjoy being held, even though it was through a gown and gloves. We came home, read the Christmas story, had homemade bean dip with chips, and enjoyed watching Charlie Brown’s Christmas.
In the evening we had our 
Christmas dinner, which consisted of ham, fresh green beans, and baked potatoes. Josh made a delicious pumpkin pie for dessert. After dinner we made our evening visit to Becca and then enjoyed watching a movie. We both agree that we had a lovely Christmas. We enjoyed being able to spend the day together without the pressures of work or school. We enjoyed our visits with Becca and are praising God for our darling gift from Him.
Today is Becca’s 1-month birthday. Her weight, as of this morning, is 3 lbs and 4.9 ounces. It’s hard to believe she’s a month old already. We’re looking forward to when she can celebrate her month birthdays at home with us.
